Mental Flosshttp://mentalfloss.com/node/15911/atom.xml2015-03-03T20:21:12+00:00http://mentalfloss.com/article/15911/celebrating-ten-years-dolly2007-02-23T14:20:41+00:002007-02-24T04:37:18+00:00Celebrating Ten Years of Dolly...Becky

Becky

This morning was the dayÂ after the tenth anniversary of Dolly's unveiling as celebrity cloned mammal, so consider this post a Bloody Mary to the grandioseÂ hangover of Dollydom. She was sprung golem-like from the mammary gland (yes) of a Finn DorsetÂ ewe &Â wasÂ yanked from the world by a lung virus...orÂ very much would have been,Â ifÂ sheÂ hadn't been given TheÂ Shot.Â She nowÂ holds somber court at the National Museum of Scotland; not quite Dollywood but give it some time...

Before you set "Jolene" on repeat and slip into a nice, depressing bubble bath (like David, Dolly's Welsh mountain ram widower), here's whatÂ her namesakeÂ has to say about theÂ vicissitudes of flattery & the frustration of not being recognized as the parent cell:Â Â

Q: Is it true that the world's first cloned animal was named after you?

A: True. It was a sheep! There was a cow named Dolly once, but I lost all that weight! (laughs) So this was a sheep. They made the clones from a mammary gland and so the scientists said, 'Well, we made this from the mammary glands so we got to call it Dolly.' Yes, I was honored. I absolutely was. There's no such thing as baaaaaaa--d publicity.

Q: Is it true that you lost a Dolly Parton look alike contest?

A: Yes! On Halloween. I don't know if they knew it or not but I just went to be fun because they had all these Dollys down on Santa Monica Blvd. in L.A. I thought, 'Well, this would be a great night for me to go out because everybody's going to look like me.' And they had the contest and I just got in line and somebody else won.